Multitasking Questions- Part 3 :D

[Matt]

Ok, I think I kind of understand multitasking. I just have a few more quick questions.
1) Can the interrupt (1ch?) timer interrupt thingy be used in protected mode?
2) What register(s) store the segment and offset of the instruction in a thread that's suppose to be executed next?
3) Should I get a god damn book on this?

[Tim]

1) Can the interrupt (1ch?) timer interrupt thingy be used in protected mode?

Yes. IRQ 1 is the timer interrupt, but which CPU interrupt that gives depends on how the PIC is set up. AFAIK interrupt 1Ch is called by the BIOS in real mode; interrupt 8h is the default timer interrupt (but you need to change the handler number because it clashes with a predefined exception number).

2) What register(s) store the segment and offset of the instruction in a thread that's suppose to be executed next?

CS and EIP store the segment and offset of the instruction that's about to be exectued in the current thread, if that's what you mean.

3) Should I get a god damn book on this?

Yes! A book is much better than asking questions on a message board or newsgroup.

[drizzt]

sorry Tim.. could you suggest me a good book which speaks about multitasking in PMode, or PMode in general?! Thanx...

[Tim]

I don't know of any books specifically on multitasking under protected mode on the Intel x86 series, but there are plenty of OS-related books available. Generally the one to get is "Operating Systems: Design & Implementation" by Andrew Tanenbaum (the Minix guy).

[Matt]

Ok, thanks. This really makes multitasking sound simple. (At least I think it is...)

[drizzt]

I don't know of any books specifically on multitasking under protected mode on the Intel x86 series, but there are plenty of OS-related books available. Generally the one to get is "Operating Systems: Design & Implementation" by Andrew Tanenbaum (the Minix guy).

Yes... I have this book and I think is the best OS book. Unfortunately is not the best way to learn something about PMode, because it doesn't enter into details and speaks about PMode, GDT, IDT, ecc. only in 2-3 chapters. Then you must study the Minix source directly if you want to learn something...
It's very difficult to find a good guide about PMode...